After The End: Book 1

23. Space

Louis POV

"Please stop," I said exasperated. I leaned against the doorway annoyed.

Harry ignored me and continued scrubbing furiously on his bathroom floor. I wasn't exactly sure what he was trying to accomplish. He said he saw spots, but I hadn't seen any and there definitely weren't any now that he'd been scrubbing for 30 minutes. He was crouched on the floor wearing one of my T-shirts' and a pair of my jeans. His laundry was apparently in the washer. He was staring intently at the spot he was scrubbing as if there was something there other than the gleaming white tiles.

"No," he muttered sounding bored. He continued scrubbing. In his T-shirt I could see the ugly purple bruise near his elbow now looked less like a welt and more like an actual fading bruise. The slices below it were closing and fading too. The word Lovely would likely be warped forever. We'd never even had that conversation.

"You're acting manic," I observed cautiously.

Harry shrugged and moved to another section of the floor. "Probably," he paused to look up at me. "I'd complain about it to Naomi again and see if that helps."

I cringed. He had told me that Naomi had been loose lipped towards Lux and Lux apparently didn't mind reporting it right back to him. "You know it's not like that."

He smirked and went back to scrubbing, seemingly content with having caught me off guard. "I'm an open book," Harry mused. "I don't even have a filter, how could you possibly find me difficult to speak to?"

I rolled my eyes and watched him scrub for another minute. He was slowing down. I knew bending down like that was probably making him dizzy. "You don't tell me anything anymore," I said finally.

"I tell you everything," he assured me. The look on his face told me that he knew he was lying.

"Tell me about Lux," I pressed raising my eyebrows.

Harry stopped what he was doing to look at me. His expression was definitely annoyed. There was something else too though. He was intrigued. He was still bullying her at every interaction. When they'd returned from smoking on the porch, she looked pleased with herself and he looked like he wanted to scream. Still, he had insisted he hated her at every mention. Then Naomi had reported that Lux told her Harry had been quite pleasant and polite, which I somehow doubted and also believed at the same time. She and Naomi would officially be moving in that afternoon and I doubted Harrys composure would provide a peaceful house. I knew she was annoying and I knew she had decided to cling to him, which couldn't be easy but Harry was being really extra abrasive.

"There's nothing to tell," he assured me. And yet he had stopped cleaning to answer.

"Are you sure," I pressed.

Harry rolled his eyes and stood up. He blinked hard once upright. "I'm a virgin for sobriety remember?"

"So you're being mean to her to avoid sleeping with her?" I clarified.

Harry laughed. There was a certain light in his eyes "No. You've met her. You know exactly why I'm being mean to her."

I couldn't necessarily argue with that, although I'd remained significantly more civil in my distaste for Naomis sake. "So you're not interested in her advances?" I clarified again.

Harry's mind looked far away. "Last time I was propositioned in the fetal days of sobriety, how did that go for me? Safe to say sex probably isn't a good idea. What was it you said to me? Sex and drugs are basically one in the same?"

I cringed as he mentioned the fabled 'last time' that had haunted us. He repeated my own words back at me. That was the first time he had mentioned drugs to me in days. "Are you worried?" I asked cautiously. "About sex and drugs being an issue?"